The final stages of filming of the new Russian documentary The Last Emperor: A Russian Lesson, have now been completed in the Crimea. The documentary will be the culmination of a 5-part documentary series, The Romanovs: Tsar's Case devoted to the 400th anniversary of the dynasty.

Between September 1st - 4th, the filming took place at the Livadia Palace, The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and at other places associated with the life of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II during his visits to the Crimea.

"We have just finished shooting at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Tsarskoye Selo, and now the Crimea," said Helen Chavchavadze, who serves as creative head and vice president of the Russian Cultural Foundation.

The series is to be broadcast in Russia and internationally in November 2013 on the television channels Rossia and Planeta, the Center of Investigative Journalism reports. Note: The documentary series will be broadcast in Russian. These channels are now available on some Western cable and satellite television services, check your local listings - PG.

I am pleased to announce that the NEW issue of our official magazine, ROYAL RUSSIA No. 4 is now AVAILABLE!--PG.

Included in our Summer 2013 issue are the following full-length articles:

The Coronation of Emperor Alexander III

- An eye-witness account of the ceremonies marking the coronation of Emperor Alexander III at Moscow on 27th May [O.S. 15th], 1883. Richly illustrated with reproductions from the coronation album.

My Russia: The Children's Island at Tsarskoye Selo

- Located in the Alexander Park, the Children's Island and Pavilion is often overlooked by visitors to Tsarskoye Selo. This article explores the history and future of this unique folly built for the children of Emperor Nicholas I. Includes photographs by the author, Paul Gilbert.

The Museum of Imperial Court Carriages

- A history of the Museum of Imperial Court Carriages in St. Petersburg, and what happened to the collection after the museum was closed by the Bolsheviks in 1920. Includes photographs by the author, Paul Gilbert.

plus, these articles by Russian and foreign historians:

Russia's Thespian Mentorsby Irene W. Galaktionova

Crowned in a Far Country: The Five Daughters of Emperor Paul Iby Gema Faye O. Nicdao

An Interview With Anna Vyrubovaby Rheta Childe Dorr

Bloody Sunday: A Tragedy That Became a Sign by Andrei Mantsov

Princess Zenaida Yusupovaby Meriel Buchanan

Plus 2 collections of rare and vintage photographs:

Frozen in Timefeaturing photographic memories of the Russian Imperial family

The Lost World of Imperial Russiafeaturing vintage photographs of Imperial Russia before the Revolution

For more information on the contents of this issue, or to order your copy, please click on the following link;

A portrait of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna by Pyotr Neradovsky is now on display at the State Historical Museum in Moscow

Further to my article about The Romanov's: Portrait of a Dynasty (see below) which opened on September 3rd at the State Historical Museum in Moscow, I am happy to update it with this very interesting image.

The photograph is from the exhibit but it is the portrait on the far left that I would like to draw to your attention. It is a previously unknown portrait of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, painted by the Russian artist Pyotr I. Neradovsky. It has been kept in storage for decades but as been specially restored for this exhibition.

A new exhibition, The Romanov's: Portrait of a Dynasty opens today at the State Historical Museum in Moscow. The exhibit is dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, featuring grand and royal portraits from the collection of the State Historical Museum.

The State Historical Museum has a rich collection of Russian art, and an important repository of grand and royal portraits. For the first time in one exhibition space are portraits of all the members of the royal family, executed in painting, sculpture, miniature, graphics and photos. As a result of the addition of such an ensemble is the opportunity to showcase the "Romanov portrait" as a bright phenomenon of Russian culture. The chronological framework of the exhibition covers a little more than three centuries - from 1613 to 1917. It is divided into sections corresponding to the main periods of the Romanov era.

The exhibition features more than 400 exhibits, including the works of painters, sculptors, miniaturists, graphics and photos: John Doe, A. Makovsky, IE Repin, FS Rokotoff; Antokolsky, RR Bach, IP Vitali, BK Rastrelli DI Evreinova; AP Bryullova, GS Verey, PF Sokolov, among others. Many of the works are on display for the first time, such as the portrait of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna by the Russian artist P. I. Neradovsky, which for many years was kept in storage and has been specially restored for this exhibition.

During their reign, which spanned a little more than three centuries, the Romanovs were often the subjects of art - being painted, sculptured and photographed by both Russian and foreign artists. In addition to portraits, the exhibition will show genre works that reveal important events and the day-to-day life of the Romanovs: the coronations, events of social and cultural life, court life, war scenes, etc. The exhibition also includes Romanov Memories which features personal items, autographs and memorabilia of individual members of the Russian Imperial family.

Particular attention is also paid to the many great dukes and duchesses. Among the many generations of the Romanovs were many extraordinary people, endowed with an iron will, strong character, fiery temperament and outstanding ability. For more than three centuries, many of the grand dukes occupied important government posts, and played a prominent roles in the social, political and cultural life of the Russian Empire. Among them were the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich - poet and playwright, President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences; the Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich - prominent historian and one of the founders of the national science about butterflies - lepidopterist; Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich - the outstanding numismatic, managing the Russian Museum; the Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich - an outstanding architect and builder; Grand Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich - a noted horse breeder; Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich - the creator of the national air force; the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna - a talented artist, who left behind a huge artistic heritage through her paintings; the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna—the Younger - a gifted designer, based in Paris, she collaborated with the fashion house Chanel.

The Romanov's: Portrait of a Dynasty runs from September 17, 2013 to January 30, 2014, at the State Historical Museum in Moscow.

Queen Margrethe of Denmark attends the gala opening at the Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle

Denmark and the Russian Empire in 1600 - 1900, an exhibition devoted to Russian-Danish relations opens today at the Museum of National History in the town of Hillerød, 40 kilometers from the Danish capital.

In the halls of Frederiksborg Castle can be seen table silver from the Moscow Kremlin - derived from the collection of ambassadorial gifts of the Armoury Chamber, they had been delivered to Russia as a part of a dowry by the son of King Christian IV, Valdemar Christian, for his marriage to the daughter of the Russian Tsar. Here are also portraits of the Empress Catherine the Great, by the Danish artist Vigilius Eriksen (1779) and the Empress Maria Feodorovna, born Danish Princess Dagmar, created by the Russian painter Alexei Korzuhin (1885).

Presented are the elegant ballroom toilette of Maria Feodorovna, among them - a gorgeous dress by the famous Parisian couturier, Charles Frederick Worth. The exhibition also features a silver cup with a diameter of about one meter, created by the famous jeweller to the Russian Court, Carl Faberge, which was a gift of Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna to her parents - King Christian IX and Queen Louise, on the occasion of their golden wedding anniversary.

The exhibition tells about the arrival of Peter I in Denmark in 1716, about his stay in the country from 1780 until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the last descendants of the extinct "Brunswick" branch of Tsar Ivan Alexeyevich and, of course, about the daily life of Maria Feodorovna that 19-year-old Danish princess came to Russia in 1866 to marry the heir to the Russian throne, and after the revolution of 1917 was forced to return to her homeland.

"Few countries can match the Russian imperial style of luxury and splendour," - said in a press release, the exhibition, which has been four years in the making. During its preparation, the Danish Museum staff visited four times in Russia. Some of the exhibits provided by the Kremlin Museums, and the Pavlovsk Museum-Reserve and the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Preserve, whose directors attended the gala opening . Other items belong to Danish museums, archives and private collections, as well as the Danish Royal Family.

The opening ceremony was attended by Queen Margrethe of Denmark, who flew in from the south of France where she is currently vacationing.

"Russian-Danish relations which span more than five centuries, has always been based on the principles of friendship, respect and mutually beneficial cooperation, - noted Mikhail Vanin, Russian Ambassador to Denmark. - It is no small measure the close links between the Imperial House of Romanov, which marks its 400th anniversary in 2013, and the Danish royal family. This is why the exhibition, devoted to the relations between the two countries, this year is especially important. "

The exhibition opens to the public on August 30 and will run until December 1, 2013.

Hidden for nearly a century, a previously unknown portrait of the Tsesarevich Alexei Nicholayevich, the son of Emperor Nicholas II was discovered in a house on Wednesday, not far from the Catherine Palace at Pushkin. The portrait was found by workers during the restoration of the facade of the 18th century Kabinetskaya (Cavaliers) House on Sadovoi Ulitsa.

The 86cm x 67cm oil painting of the Tsesarevich Alexei, dressed in a sailors shirt, was found hidden between the wall and the eaves of the house. The canvas was rolled up, wrapped in newspapers dating from 1917 and 1918, and pinned down with bricks. Experts at the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Museum Preserve believe that the owners of the house removed the portrait from its frame and hid it after the revolution of 1917.

The artist is unknown but believed to be painted from a photograph of the young heir to the throne during the 1913-1914 period. Experts will now attempt to identify the artist and learn more about the original owner of the house. It is known that the house was occupied by Gendarme Corps Colonel Boris Gerardi, who served as Head of the Palace Police from 1905-1917.

Iraida Bott, Deputy Scientific Director at the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Preserve told local media that the oil painting is dilapidated, with numerous creases and a torn-off fragment and in urgent need of restoration. Once this has been done, the portrait will then go on display at the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Museum, presumably in the Alexander Palace where the Tsesarevich spent much of his life. In the meantime, further investigation of the house will result in the discovery of other treasures from the Tsarist period.

A new exhibition, The Emperors of Russia will officially open on Friday, August 30th, at the Yaroslavl Art Museum. The exhibit which marks the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty will feature portraits of the Russian emperors, from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th centuries.

In addition to paintings and drawings, the exhibition will also present cabinet bronze busts of the late 19th century from the collection of the former Governor of the Yaroslavl region, Anatoly Lisitsyn.

Most of the exhibited works were created by relatively unknown artists - Fedor Rokotoff, Semena Shchukin, Jean-Marc Nattier, Georg Groot and Johann Tanauera. It will be on display and several original works of the English portrait painter George Dawe.

Exactly 135 years ago, on August 27, 1878, the Russian military statesmen and one of the leaders of the White Movement, Pyotr Wrangel, was born. He was born in the Kovno Governorate in the Russian Empire (near present-day Zarasai, Lithuania). The Wrangel family was of the local Baltic German nobility.

Since the middle of the 13th century the Wrangel family produced 7 field marshals, more than 30 generals and 7 admirals who served Russia and European states. The polar explorer Ferdinand Wrangel had an island in the Arctic Ocean named after him. The father of Pyotr Wrangel – Nikolai Wrangel – was a well-known art historian and collector.

He was an officer in the Russian Imperial Army, a participant of the Russo-Japanese War and hero of World War I, Pyotr Wrangel was considered one of the most promising military leaders of Russia. His military skills were also seen during the Civil War and the successes of the White Army in 1918-1919 were due in large part to Wrangel’s mounted troops.

Having taken charge of the Volunteers’ Army, Wrangel helped hold off the advance of Red Army forces on the Crimea and organize the evacuation of remaining White supporters. In emigration he established the Russian All-Military Union, an organization established to fight for the preservation and unity of all White forces living abroad. He settled in Brussels from September 1927 and worked as a mining engineer. Wrangel's memoirs were published in the magazine White Cause in Berlin in 1928.

Wrangel died suddenly of Tuberculosis in 1928, and Wrangel's family believed that he had been poisoned by his butler’s brother, who lived in the Wrangel household in Brussels briefly and who was allegedly a Soviet agent. Wrangel's funeral and burial took place in Brussels, but he was reinterred on October 6, 1929 in the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox church in Belgrade, Serbia according to his final wishes.

Buyer beware! After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Western market was flooded with forgeries of the 1896 Coronation Cup (photo) or Khodynka Cup of Sorrows. Highly sought after by collectors, many buyers pay huge sums to own one of these historic cups. It is just one of many items counterfeited by unscrupulous dealers.

At least half of the items in circulation on Russia's antiques market are counterfeits, which cost scammed collectors millions of rubles every year, according to antiques experts and law enforcement agencies.

Dishonest dealers and a lack of quality experts are the core of the problem, and solving it will have to go hand-in-hand with a change in mentality among merchants and buyers, experts said.

It is hard to track whether the number of fakes is growing or increasing every year because people still have a negative attitude toward the police and hesitant to report any incidents, said Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Kistochkin whose beat is the antiques market, which is estimated to be worth about $200 million in annual sales.

One thing is sure, he added: There are a lot of fakes in every antiques segment.

"Though all of Europe is buying and selling them, there were not that many [Ivan] Aivazovsky paintings ever made," Kistochkin said. "Even if the master's students were involved, their hands would have shriveled up if they tried to draw so many paintings."

About 2 million people in Russia collect antiques in some way, according to estimates by the Eastern European Antique House.

While the popularity of collecting has grown, experts said there was still no system for controlling counterfeits or punishing those responsible for making them.

Most antique dealers have a short sighted buy-and-sell mentality that shows no respect for the items or their clients, said Sergei Yunin, a major shareholder in the First Republican Bank and founder of the Eastern European Antique House.

"Dealers have the primitive psychology of Soviet-era profiteers," Yunin said, adding that all of the dealers he has met in his life were in some way dishonest.

Antiques evaluators often facilitate sales of counterfeits. It is hard to find competent — and most importantly, honest — antique experts that give accurate assessments of the item's value, said Vladimir Kazakov, general director of the National Institute of Independent Expertise.

Many of the current experts come from state structures, are aging and find it hard to resist the temptation of bribes, Kistochkin said. The situation is so bad that some of them are virtually on salary from dishonest dealers.

Despite the well-known problems in this market segment, the perpetrators of counterfeits easily escape punishment. The law states the consequences for stealing antiques is up to 15 years in jail,

depending on the item. But there is no separate article concerning those who produce counterfeits, lawyer Vladimir Sidyakin said.

Even if the culprit is caught, it is hard to prove improper intent. The person could merely say that he painted a reproduction of a famous painting for his friends, Kistochkin said.

The Antique House plans to help control the number of fakes on the market by offering collectors an evaluation of items they are interested in through a panel of three independent experts with access to a top notch technical laboratory. However, since there will be more experts involved, the service will cost 40 to 50 percent more than similar services currently on the market, such at the expertise offered by the Historical Museum's Society of Friends.

Melted down by the Bolsheviks 96 years ago, the monument to Catherine the Great has been restored in the Ural town of Irbit

A monument to the Empress Catherine II has been restored in Irbit, a town situated about 203 km from Ekaterinburg in the Sverdlovsk Oblast region of Russia. Founded in 1631 as Irbeyevskaya Sloboda, its name was changed to Irbit in 1662. It was granted official town status by Catherine the Great in 1775 for the town's loyalty to the Empress during the Pugachev Uprising of 1773-74. The following year, she awarded the town its official crest.

The bronze monument was originally installed in Market Square in 1883. It was created by Mikhail Mikeshin, the outstanding Russian artist and sculptor who also created the Millenium of Russia monument in Veliky Novgorod, as well as the monument to Catherine II which stands in front of the Alexandrinsky Theatre on the Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg.

On May 1st, 1917 a crowd of rioters pulled down the monument. Shortly after, the Bolsheviks erected a statue of Vladimir Lenin. The bronze statue of the Russian empress was hauled off to the local smelter and melted down.

In 2002, a local historical team conducted archival research, where they found the plans, drawings and photographs of the original monument. The new monument is an exact replica of the original.

It is interesting to note, that the statue of Lenin still stands some 30 metres from the newly restored monument to the Russian empress, "For the time being, the statue of Lenin will remain," said Deputy Mayor Sergei Kulikov.